To Dream of a Thief
by lostangel007
Summary: The Lady Clarisse dreams of Lupin, and finds he can be every bit as crafty in her dreams as he is in real life. This takes place right after The Castle of Cagliostro.


To Dream of a Thief

Disclaimer: I do not own Lupin the III, or any related characters, of course.

Lady Clarisse seemed to fall into sleep very quickly that night, the same day the events had occurred, and her thief had left her. She thought back on their goodbye, on their last exchange of words.

He had taken off, as quickly as he had come to her. Somehow, Clarisse knew that their paths would cross again someday.

As she stared at the ceiling, her eyelids began to flutter, and then grow heavy, and the image of her ceiling soon immerged into the nighttime sky, with each star shining brightly.

The stars. The stars reminded her so much of him, her thief. Although she very much detested the room the evil Count Cagliostro had kept her in, and everything about it; she found herself looking back wistfully at the glowing stars that decorated her tower, as they reminded her so much of her thief, as that was when she had first seen him, under the stars.

"It was as if I met him under the real night-time stars," she said to herself, now completely in her dream.

Love. This must be what love is. If not, what else could it be? Clarisse realized now, that she was in love for the first time in her life. She placed her hand over her heart, and could hear it beating.

Hear it?

The Lady Clarisse startled a little, and then calmed. Yes, she could hear her heart, and not just feel it. She knew it was because she was in her dream, and everything might be a little more different than from her every day life-her senses would be more in tune with everything. It was at that point; she looked around at her surroundings. She was in a forest.

"Oh," she breathed slightly, and a nightingale made a call then. It seemed to know that she was in love.

A bench, made of fine wood, suddenly appeared then, before her. It was decorated with the greenest of vine, intertwining all through crevices in the benches arms and legs. Clarisse did not hesitate to sit down, and relax. She found herself looking out to sea-the waters where purple and blue.

"Why, hello there, me lady," a familiar voice suddenly spoke up from behind her.

"Huh? Oh-" Clarisse blushed, and she at once put her pretty hands to her face. It was her thief! For some reason, she just knew he was going to come, and he did!

Lupin bowed to her, and offered her a rose. Clarisse averted her eyes from him as she accepted his gift. When she touched the delicate roses stem, more roses attached to that one appeared! Her thief beamed at her.

"Thank you," she said softly. Lupin nodded at her.

"Come, my dear-let us go and enjoy the evening before I have to go…" Lupin held his hand out to her, and she shyly took it, and stood up.

"Go? But where do you have to go? Can you not stay here with me?"

Clarisse noticed her question seemed to make him a little sad, and he did not answer. She clung close to his arm.

They walked along a path for quite awhile, neither of the two saying anything. Clarisse considered telling him that she loved him, because she knew for sure she did. In fact, she had never been so sure anything before!

They passed by a pack of gorgeous peacocks together, and the peacocks, upon seeing the couple, began to sing happily.

"Oh! I did not know that peacocks could sing," Clarisse noted. Lupin just smiled at her, and her heart began to pound even faster. Clarisse wondered if he could hear her heart, as she could hear it perfectly.

As if he could read her thoughts, her thief stopped, and turned to her. He touched her face lightly.

"I did not know that your heart could beat so…joyously." He whispered to her. He then pulled her closer to himself.

Clarisse could feel herself trembling as he held her in his arms.

"My thief," she whispered.

"Clarisse," he whispered back.

It was then that one of the peacocks began to make a very strange noise-it sounded very much like a clock ringing.

"Oh! Oh-no…" Clarisse looked about her.

"What is it?" Lupin looked calm, and unbothered.

"It is a dream."

"What?"

Clarisse then grabbed Lupin by his hand. "It is a dream! But I do not want to wake up, I want to stay here with you-forever."

Sobbing, Clarisse threw herself at Lupin. He seemed merely amused by her emotions.

"There, there, my love-now you know I cannot stay here forever. Nothing is forever."

She looked up to him, her eyes filled with tears.

"But never you fear-," Lupin stepped back a little, and seemed to be searching his blazer for something.

"I will make it so we can stay here just a little while longer."

Clarisse watched him intently and hopefully, the "ringing" peacock was starting to get even louder as it walked closer to Lupin and Clarisse.

"Hmm, not in here…or here…I hope I did not leave it behind," Lupin went through every pocket in his blazer and pants.

"But what are you looking for?" inquired Clarisse. She looked over nervously at the ringing peacock. Suddenly, she began to feel weak. She looked about her; everything, the forest, the peacocks, and worst of all-her thief where starting to fade. Clarisse realized what was happening.

"Oh! Help! I am waking up!" She cried.

"Hmmm," Lupin had now taken his blazer off, and was shaking it. "It has to be in here somewhere."

Clarisse then ran to him, and tried to put her arms around him, but they slipped through him, as if he was a ghost. She dropped to her knees-she could barely see him anymore. Then, she remembered:

"Your collar! Look under your collar!"

Lupin looked at her, he was fading, but he could still see her perfectly.

"Ah," Lupin took a shiny object out from under his collar, threw it in the air, and managed to get his blazer back on, then caught the object.

"Oh, no!" cried out Clarisse as everything in front of her disappeared from view. In a moment, she would be awoken, and it would have all been a dream. The only thing she could hear was the ringing. But then, she heard something else:

It was simply the most beautiful music she had ever heard. It sounded like a flute, but she was not sure-but it seemed to drown out the loud ringing of the peacock. And the more the music went on, the more everything that was in her dream came back into sight. She found she was again in the forest, and she saw the peacocks seemed to be driven away by the music. And finally, her thief came into view again, in front of her. He was playing a silver flute indeed.

Clarisse stood up from where she had dropped to her knees moments before. Lupin looked over his shoulder, and saw the peacocks where now out of sight, and he ceased playing. He winked at her, and then extended his hand to help her up.

"Thank you-that was the most-wonderful music I have ever heard! It was both happy and sad at the same time."

"Yes, my love," Lupin beamed proudly, and replaced the flute. "Now come with me, we need to take advantage of the extra time you know."

They began to walk again, down the forest's paths, hand in hand.

"I may stay with you now-forever?" Clarisse asked, once they came to a waterfall.

"No-I just bought us some extra time. I can only do that once in a dream. But isn't that better than nothing at all?" Lupin asked, upon seeing Clarisse's disappointed look. They both sat down on a large rock, overlooking the water.

"Yes," she finally whispered. "Dreams are-strange."

Clarisse then looked to Lupin.

"My thief?" her voice trembled a little.

"Yes?"

"I-I love you."

Lupin smiled at her, and pulled her into an embrace. She then closed her eyes, and kissed her thief, as she had so dreamed of. She felt his lips against hers, as he kissed her back.

It was then she began to hear the ringing again, and she looked up to see a golden dolphin in the water below this time making it his song.

"It will be time soon," she said sadly.

He cupped her face in his hands.

"Hey-don't be so sad. Remember-you can always dream."

She nodded to him, and once again went to kiss him. He held her tightly in his arms as they kissed. It was not long before the dolphin's ringing drowned out the sound of the waterfall. Clarisse closed her eyes as tightly as she could; as she did not want to see things (or worst of all, her thief) fade away. Clarisse kept her lips on Lupin until she could not feel him anymore.

A few moments later, she had awoken. The sun shined brightly outside, into her bedroom. She realized the ringing was still going on, and she turned to her alarm clock, and switched it off.

She got up right away, and started her day-her heart full of love for Lupin. All throughout the day, all she could think of was that soon, nightfall would come again, and she would be able to rest, and perhaps see her thief again.


End file.
